All Hallows Eve – A History

The origins of Halloween or All Hallows Eve are old.  So old that I think most of us have no idea why we do what we do on the day.  Of course one could Wikipedia the origins and quickly come up with a great deal of answers.

But I thought I would stick to some scholarly writers to gather the information on the day that kids anticipate and parents prepare knowing that the best thing to come out of the experience is a parent tax and an extended kids snacks for schools we no longer have to put out for a month.

The Pagan Roots

Halloween most people know is a pagan holiday in origin which much like the Solstice was co-opted by the early Christians to change the focus away from the pagan rituals and to make it more Christian centred.   The origins are Celtic.  We mostly know this from Gaulic Celtic sources¹.

In Celtic worship November 1st was the New Year for them, it was called Samhain.   The Celts viewed the day as starting at sun down, so thus the New Year started on what would be October 31st for our understanding.  Geo Athena Trevarthen explains that there was good religious reason for this:

Why should the year begin in darkness?  In The Conquest of Gaul Caesar said Celtic Gauls claimed descent from Father Dis, a god of death, darkness and the underworld. Consequently, each day began at night. The year begins with darkness because all things do; just as the baby forms in the mother’s womb, the new day begins in midnight’s darkness.

So an interesting understanding comes from this, the Celtic idea for the new year is not spring, when things are new in nature, or at the winter solstice where day begins to return again rather it came from another origin.  They saw darkness as the origin of life, so thus it was something to celebrate.   For us who live in an age where darkness is conceived as something to be frightened of this is likely a strange concept.  Anyone who has lived, especially in Wales, during a winter of cold, wet, and dark, would understand why this was seen as such a significant event.

A major reason for this day in Celtic myth was a celebration of death and life, death from the loss of those who will not survive the cold winter months and for the conception of new life which, lets be honest here, was one thing that would be common in months after the harvest and most of the hard work was done.   Sitting by the fire only gets you so far at the end of the day.

Another Celtic portion to the modern version of the day was the release of chaos during the darkness of that period.  In later folklore this idea was personified in a letting loose of youth.  Perceived by some as a way to keep reign on them the rest of the year.  In Scotland and Ireland this meant teens and children would play practical jokes and some not so harmless tricks on others in the community.

As Jack Santino says, “All Hallows Eve, alias Hallow Even, alias Hallowe’en is an ancient Celtic pre-Christian New Year’s day in modern dress.”²

1600 years ago the apocalypse struck Britain

You live in a city, in your life you have always had plumbing, under floor heating and your days are spent at the shops buying the newest shiniest toy.   The world is your oyster, you travel the boundaries looking for interesting sites and you enjoy food and clothing from around the world.  Weapons are banned and you rely on the local police to enforce the peace.   On top of all that you follow your local sports with passion and follow all the local gossip about some starlet and her sports hero boyfriend.

No you do not live in New York, maybe London, or more accurately Londinium.  You are a Roman Britain living in a place in the future to be known as England.   And in 410, according to tradition, you are about to meet your end of days, welcome to your apocalypse.

Correcting the Nanking Narrative: The Role of Historians

Not a Mormon topic but I found parallels in our own discussions around Mountain Meadows and Missouri period.   Not straight on comparisons but rather the comparison from memory to history.  First essay I have done in a couple of years so be gentle

In December of 1937 the army of Imperial Japan surrounded the capital of Republic of the China.  After a bloody battle the Japanese forces took over the city of Nanking.[1] All of the various academics studying the issue agree on these basic details.   That is where the agreement ends for those studying this issue.   Japanese people who want their soldiers and leaders remembered better than they might be, there was a desire to play down the actions of their forces during that period.  On the Chinese mainland there is a desire for the Japanese to admit to a war crime.

Historians, both past and present are responsible for the history they presume to present.  They have a moral responsibility to present history, not only factually, but to also take into account how their own biases will affect their conclusions.  As well one must consider the bias of the sources when creating an argument and one must also reflect on the role they will have in defining history.  Also historians should be ethical in the weight they give to their sources.  Through an examination of the Nanking massacre and how it has been interpreted by historians this paper will argue the need for a moral examination of controversial subjects is critical to correcting the narrative of the event and in offering a valuable role in the discussion.

As historians have become aware of their position as observers of the past there has been some discussion of role they play in shaping history.  Bethan McCullagh described how the preconceptions of historians can be helpful in understanding a subject without being direct bias.  She views the role of academic historians to overcome personal interest and cultural bias to see facts as they are even if the interpretation of them is changeable.[2]

Connecting with the past or stealing the future

If you have any interest in History you have seen for sale at places like ebay Roman coins and other ancient treasures in many other varieties.  If you haven’t just type Roman Coins in the search and you will see hundreds on sale in various conditions.

In some cases these are fakes seeking to dupe the unsuspecting.  A few years ago I bought a signed Bobby Thompson baseball which I am still not convinced is real, though the novelty of having a possible signed ball by the player who hit the “Shot heard round the world” makes it fun to have.

So if you bought a fake, sorry, it is ebay after all so you take your chances.  Much like our purchase of Sailor Moon Dvds for our daughter which obvious came from Chinese knockoffs.  The first big clue was on the packaging it was called Sail Or Moon… yeah that is sooo official.

While you might be miffed I am somewhat gladdened if you got a fake.  It means you are not supporting those who are selling history online for a few dollars.   While Roman coins are plentiful in many areas of Europe they can still be significant and important if they are in the ground.  In archaeology this is called stratification.  This means that the layers of soil can tell a story  of the area.  Much like tree rings soil can be found layered and each layer can represent a specific period in time.

When items like coins, broaches, clips, arrow heads or anything like it is moved it destroys the story associated with that object.

Context, Syllubus and Confusion… ah it is good to be back

Well, today was first day of my Masters degree.  After a year and a half since my last class ended on my Bachelors I have anticipated this day for a while.

So far getting familiar with a new professor and a new system of dealing with submissions, discussions and readings has left me grasping a bit this morning.  As I had to go back to my fourth year history course to grasp exactly what was required.

It has taken a bit of stumbling and crawling around back with words and phrases that are not part of normal conversation.  Précis comes readily to mind.

After about an hour though I am finding my stride again, should be interesting course “Historical Research Methods” while seemingly a boring title underlies an important phase of historical understanding.    The course has reminded me a lot of my US Civil Rights course in that it offers a seminar style which obviously is the way graduate courses work.   The good thing is that the style is familiar.

Hopefully it is the start of better things to come.  As always as I work with the focus of my arguments I will bring some of them here for your perusal.

Anyway, self indulgence away!

Second chance to do it right

Currently I am doing some research in the history of Southern Alberta Mormonism.   A few weeks ago I found a book which was considered to be a history of Raymond Alberta.   It was a large book, think a National Geographic Atlas with about 500 pages.  In other words it was big.

Reading through it I became very much aware that book was only a loose history.  It reminded me more of those family history books which are filled with “stories” and genealogy.  They are nice if you are a member of that family but not solid history.

The biggest example for me that things had gone awry was a photo.  The photo was of three women bagging sugar from some time early in the 1900s.  The only note on the photo was something to the effect of:

“You can tell these girls like their sugar because they have such sweet smiles.”

Constitutional act plowed the land for the church to grow

Ten years after the end of the Revolutionary War the remnants of the Loyalists, those who moved to captured New France rather than remain in the United States found themselves taking shelter along the eastern edge of the St. Lawrence north of Vermont.  Some moved further west ward, taking up lands nearer to Lake Ontario and in the peninsula between Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron.   However, some did not move any farther.  These refugees from New York and New England were unwanted by the new colonial government but they were unwilling to move with the rest of the Loyalists into the other area.  Preferring to stay near the New France settlement of Montreal.

So in the ensuing disagreement, including the near starvation of some of the settlers they were able to reverse the Quebec Act of 1763 to allow these settlers to stay in place and create two versions of the colony called Upper and Lower Canada.  Upper Canada, because it was at the source of the St. Lawrence became the modern province of Ontario, while in the Lower Canada, now Quebec, these remaining loyalists in the Eastern Townships stretching from the US border to Ottawa became a part of Victorian Canada.